I’ve enjoyed visiting the blogs of those of you fellow FlyLady fans (Fly Babies) who are also working on reducing clutter in your life — including body clutter. That’s the term FlyLady uses — isn’t it wonderful and appropriate? I haven’t read the book yet but would like to someday.

I notice that some of you have posted your weight and height on your sites — wow. You’re brave. I know I couldn’t do that. For me, the scale is a personal thing — and it’s not so much about what I weigh, but how I feel. Some of you would look at me and say, “So what? Why are you even trying to lose weight?” But I know that I feel most energetic when I’ve reached a certain target weight.

There are a lot of things in life I have no control over — but I’m working on the few that I do. And one thing I did yesterday was deep clean my closet — and I FINALLY got rid of all of my maternity clothes. I really have been wearing them off and on for almost ten years. I’m too embarrassed to pass them along to anyone I know! So, now I’ve entered this twilight zone — what am I going to do? Throwing out my maternity panel jeans means now I’m much more limited in what I have to wear. But the time has come!

I’m taking baby steps, as FlyLady says, toward FLYing — which stands for Finally Loving Yourself. Yes, it’s all about love, isn’t it? It’s not about denying myself that extra-large pack of French fries. It’s about loving myself enough to want to eat something that’s better for me.

I appreciate the person who sent me the comment reminding me to drink plenty of water. After I read that note of encouragement, I did go drink a glass of water. And another. And then I got full and didn’t want to GRAZE on junk food. I’m still wearing my handy pedometer, and I’ve started to take two walks a day instead of only one. It’s amazing. There’s always something new to discover when I get outside.

But honestly, I don’t think it’s the pedometer so much as my dog that’s getting me out to walk — I love watching him sniff everything. And then one or two cats come along as well, prowling nonchalantly like they don’t want me to know they’re being extra sociable — and we usually have some good-hearted yipping and hissing.

I wish you all a happy Friday as you swish and swipe (your house, not your credit cards!) to get ready for the weekend. Behind the scenes of this blog, I’m working on my first real author interview — with Mary DeMuth, who is currently living in France. I’m finishing up her wonderful book, Building the Christian Family You Never Had, which will be released next Tuesday, Jan. 24th. She’s planning a Blog Tour, which will be held once a week for several weeks — she’s asked us to think up some quirky questions so we don’t all ask her the same thing. Check out her Relevant Prose website and blog here — she’s also a Christian novelist with a new book coming out called Watching the Tree Limbs.

Well, I’m going to “live it up” this weekend, the last weekend of my present age — my birthday is coming this Monday, January 23. Dwarfing that news is the fact that the new Super Wal-Mart will be opening that same day, about two miles from my house. I may have to go walk the aisles just to be sociable. Another spot on the planet that used to be woods and is now a parking lot. Hmmm…on that note, I better log off.